Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Was it really just me or was The Master a bit of a drag? Paul Thomas Anderson has had an incredible career as a director so far. First coming to my attention with Boogie Nights in 1997, he then baffled me with Magnolia, startled me with Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love and mesmerised me with There Will Be Blood.

But despite all the critical adoration heaped upon it, The Master left me cold and as far as I'm concerned, Boogie Nights is still by far Anderson's best film. It had a chaotic, cool vibe that was funny, poignant and had one of my favourite ever performances from the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Now Anderson seems to have settled on 'ex-rapper' Joaquin Phoenix as his go-to-guy of choice after working with him on The Master. Anderson has often talked about his love of comedy and his ambitions to make one, and Inherent Vice looks like it could get hysterical from the teaser trailer.

Joaquin Phoenix plays a shambling drug-fueled private detective who gets involved in a dangerous game of kidnapping among the incredibly wealthy, after his ex-girlfriend comes to him with the story. It's got a jam packed cast including Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson and Eric Roberts but best of all, it seems that Josh Brolin may actually be having fun in this movie. It's been a while. Here's the trailer:

Monday, 22 September 2014

I've been given the incredible privilege of covering the London Film Festival 2014 for Starburst Magazine. Even though the festival does not start until October 8th, there are many press screenings going on from now until then. I'll be going up to London to pick up my press badge today and then it's straight off for my first film of the festival: In Darkness We Fall.

This is a Spanish found footage horror set on the island of Formentera. Here is the synopsis:

On their second day on Formentera, five friends discover a hidden cave nestled into the side of a
cliff and decide to go in and explore it. Filled with excitement and adrenalin, the friends start
to make their way through the countless passageways that make up the cave. Before long,
they realise they are lost. They try for hours to find the way back to the surface, but to no
avail. They are trapped inside the cave’s huge labyrinth. Eventually they decide to spend the
night inside the cave and start searching again the next day, once they’ve had some rest.

But days go by and they are unable to find their way out. Panic is starting to set in. They have
no way of communicating with the outside world and no food or water. They’re not going to
last much longer if they don’t find the way out soon. Faced with what seems like impending
death, the friends are forced to take a drastic decision. As far as they´re concerned, there’s
only one way to survive…

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

It's so long and tanks for all the action in the breathtaking latest international trailer for David Ayer's World War 2 film Fury. Closing the 2014 BFI London Film Festival and starring one of the most exciting casts of the year with Brad Pitt, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal all crammed in a tank together, Fury is definitely going to be a must see movie, even for those who can't stand Shia LaBeouf.

The official synopsis says it's 'April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European
Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt)
commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind
enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face
overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of
Nazi Germany.'

Director David Ayer may have slipped into silliness with his previous film Sabotage, but his best work includes End of Watch and the casting here suggests something very special. The new trailer is more focussed than any previous ones with showing the relationship between Pitt's team leader and new boy Logan Lerman as he struggles to fit into a close-knit group of surviving soldiers as they roll into Germany nearing the end of the war.

For me, Lerman is the unproven one out of this cast but I hope that this is the moment where he is going to shine, even with the impressive cast that surround him. Pitt is usually good, Pena is frequently excellent and I think we have still yet to see LaBoeuf's best. While Bernthal depends on a few too many recognisable mannerisms, he was also the best actor for a long time in The Walking Dead. Ayer did a fantastic job with End of Watch and from this trailer, Fury has all the hallmarks of being a great war movie. It certainly looks like an explosive way to close the BFI London Film Festival.

Thursday, 4 September 2014

Noooooo I haven't been given a massive sneak peek at all 248 films showing at the BFI London Film Festival 2014. However, I was lucky enough to cover the Cannes Film Festival this year for Tastic Film and that means that I have seen 8 of those 248 already before the LFF even kicks off on October 8th.

While I'm sure there will be many more must see films at the festival this year, I wanted to highlight my top 5 of those that I have already had the pleasure of seeing. In my opinion, these films are all pretty exceptional (especially the top 3), and are bound to get people talking.

Mads Mikkelsen leads an unapologetically violent western that tells a
straightforward revenge story elevated by a mesmerising central
performance.

In America, 1871, brothers and former Danish soldiers Jon (Mads
Mikkelsen) and Peter (Mikael Persbrandt) await the arrival of a train
carrying Jon’s wife and son from Denmark. The family have been separated
for seven years while Jon and Peter have settled in the wild and
lawless lands of late 19th century America. However, no sooner than his
wife Marie and child arrive does Jon find trouble at the hands of a pair
of men who take a fancy to Marie. Getting in the wrong coach leads to a
tense and suddenly violent encounter that leaves Maria and the boy dead
and Jon wanted by notorious gang leader Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Jon
and his brother Peter must act alone if they are to survive and exact
their revenge.

Mikkelsen delivers a typically excellent performance in the lead with
some fine support from Mikael Persbrandt, Eva Green, Jonathan Pryce and
Jeffrey Dean Morgan. While there are some attempts to make this
slightly more arty than many genre outings, The Salvation is essentially
just another chance to see one man bring some well-deserved justice to
the old West.

4. Timbuktu (Click here for my full review)Timbuktu is one of those films that
sounds gruelling; hailing as it does from Africa and dealing with
Islamic repression that is rife in Mali. However, in writer/director
Abderrahmane Sissako’s hands, Timbuktu is much more than simply a
painstaking portrait of tyranny and misery.

Religious fundamentalists now control the streets of Timbuktu,
enforcing strict bans on football, music, women not wearing socks and
gloves and dishing out severe punishments to those who dare defy them.
Out in the nearby desert, Kidane lives quietly in the dunes with his
beloved wife Satima and daughter Toya. While Kidane and his family live a
peaceful and happy existence, the people in town are ruled over with an
iron fist, stoned to death or flogged for defying the rule of the
Islamic police and their improvised courts. Unfortunately, Kidane comes
into conflict with another man which leads to him having to face the men
who rule Timbuktu with no room for mercy.

Timbuktu is challenging and depressing but
also surprisingly warm and even funny in places. Abderrahmane Sissako has created a thought provoking piece of cinema
that may not make audiences into emotional wrecks but will certainly
remain in the memory for some time.

It’s true what they say: money can’t buy you happiness or
love, and it certainly cannot buy anyone talent. It is, as has so often been
noted, the root of all evil and Steve Carrell’s miserable but wickedly wealthy
wacko in Foxcatcher proves it perfectly.

Foxcatcher is the story of Olympic champion wrestlers,
brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schulz (Mark Ruffalo). Mark is the
younger brother who won a gold medal at the ‘84 Olympics while Dave is the
smarter of the pair, a loving family man who coaches his brother with care and
passion. The blue-collar brothers are an inseparable team until the magnificently wealthy John Du
Pont (Steve Carrell) sends an envoy out to collect Mark and fly him first class
out to Du Pont’s beautiful Pennsylvania country house. Foxcatcher Farm is a mansion
that would dazzle most but is particularly impressive to working class Mark,
and a tour reveals the place is filled with race horses, trophies and Du Pont’s
snooty mother (Vanessa Redgrave).

Carrell steals the film as a sad, pathetic, insecure little man who believes
money can stop anyone saying no to him. For those who do not know the real story behind the film,
try to avoid spoilers as the ending will likely be a huge shock. For everyone
else, the real surprise here is Carrell whose performance as a man a million
miles from normal will likely be a strong contender come award season. Catch
it.

It's the
dawn of the planet of the dogs in this exceptional Hungarian film from director
Kornel Mundruzco. Featuring a cast of hundreds of dogs and some striking
imagery of them unleashed and taking to the city streets, it is a powerful,
emotional and ultimately hilarious dog apocalypse.

When 13
year old Lili is forced by her father to get rid of her best friend and beloved
mutt Hagen, it begins a story of horror and heartbreak for both the girl and
her dog. Intercutting between the increasingly brutal treatment that Hagen
finds himself at the hands of, and Lili's descent into teen rebellion as a
response to the loss of her dog, White God is a harsh Homeward Bound where the
doggy star will never be the same again by the end of the story.

While Lili searches
the streets for Hagen, the poor dog finds himself at the mercy of some savage
characters and both Lili and Hagen find themselves exploited and desperate to
escape their circumstances. White God then swerves violently into a wildly
anarchic final act that is brutal, satisfying and absolutely hysterical in its
level of horror.

Furiously
entertaining with a perfect ending, White God is like 280 Dogs Later; an
underdog story with some serious bite.

There is unlikely to be a funnier film at the BFI London Film Festival this year than the
brilliantly bonkers and hysterically over the top anthology of short
episodes that comprise director Damián Szifrón’s Wild Tales. Never has
watching a collection of diverse characters being pushed to their limits
and spectacularly losing control been as much fun as it is in this
violent but hilarious film from Argentina.

Choosing not to simply tell one story, writer/director Szifrón
instead forces together disparate stories all linked by characters that
are pushed to their limits and end up exploding, most often in
magnificently brutal ways. First up in the pre-credits sequence, a model
catches a flight only to realise that many of the passengers have
something in common and they may not want to be on this plane after all.
Then comes the tale of a waitress who is faced
with a moral dilemma when a gangster who she has a score to settle with
comes into her restaurant. The best of the short stories is next with
the wonderfully violent encounter between a wealthy driver who overtakes
and abuses a ‘redneck’ only to find himself stuck with a flat tyre
further along the deserted road. Next up, a building demolition expert
has a run in with the authorities over a parking ticket, a rich kid
commits a hit and run to the horror of his family and finally a bride on
her wedding day finds out that her new husband has been hiding a very
big secret from her.Szifrón has made an absolutely wild film from start to finish. The performances, the
wildly varying music and score and the cinematography are all perfect
and even the couple of stories that work less well, still have moments
of genius. If there were awards for Best Fight
or for Best Wedding, then this film would cream the competition.
Wild Tales is one
hell of a ride and a hilarious must-see.

Perhaps
Jean Luc Godard's latest experiment in cinema, image, ideas and technology is
impossible to critique. It is a piece of art after all; open to wildly
differing interpretations and not designed in any way to be an easy or
identifiable experience for the audience. Bursting with ideas but difficult to
enjoy, I found it insufferable even at 70 minutes.

There is no
real narrative to speak of; a dog wanders and a man and woman meet and spout
frequently nonsensical philosophical mumblings. Divided into two sections (that
seem to constantly overlap), Goodbye to Language explores nature, the image as metaphor,
and it’s all in some of the most headache inducing 3D you will ever see.

Narrative
and character are not important however and though the dog, a mostly naked
woman and a mostly shitting man recur throughout the film, we learn little of
them. The man talks to the woman while on the toilet with the sound of him
shitting being about as inviting as the nonsense he spouts from his mouth. The
woman is naked which we are helpfully reminded is not an issue in nature as to
dogs there is no such thing as the concept of nakedness. Similarly when the dog
decides to roll around in what is possibly more shit, you can't help but feel that
by watching the film, the audience is doing the same.

Godard
experiments wildly with discontinuous editing, abrupt sounds and changes in
volume which should be in some way exciting but here comes across as simply
annoying. While I'm certain Godard isn't after approval, especially from those
who like their cinema with a good story and interesting characters, it is still
difficult to see the artistic merit in much of the film.

However,
there are some moments that are briefly interesting. The 3D in particular is
used in new and at times bravura ways. Godard would make James Cameron squirm
in his seat with ugly compositions with objects placed frustratingly in the
foreground and assaulting the eyes. Even more daring is the placing of two separate
images placed over one another so that each image can only seen by closing one
eye behind the 3D glasses.

No matter
how odd this all seems, there is occasionally a point emerging. One shot has
the subject caged by the image and there is a reference to kamera meaning
prison in Russian. The voices in the story hold a disdain for the image and
while it flits between philosophical essay, the world's worst home video and
incomprehensible poem, Goodbye to Language warns that people will soon need an
interpreter to understand what is coming out of their own mouths. Warning: if
this film is anything to go by, then I already need an interpreter.

As the film
loops, repeats and uses some of the same techniques over and over, many will
likely be desperate to say Goodbye to Language, to Godard, to cinema and even
to life itself. Its musings on God, animals, sex, death and ... um... whatever
are rarely mind blowing and the technical experimentation on display is more ugly than exciting.

Call me a
heathen, a philistine, or anything you like but as one 'character' declares near
the end: 'I hate characters'. I could not agree less. Goodbye to Language is so
frustrating, so difficult to just enjoy or engage with, that it very nearly makes me want to
say goodbye to art, hello Michael Bay... almost.

Goodbye to Language is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2014 on Oct 13th at 6.30pm at the BFI IMAX. Tickets on sale from 18th September.

It’s true what they say: money can’t buy you happiness or
love, and it certainly cannot buy anyone talent. It is, as has so often been
noted, the root of all evil and Steve Carrell’s miserable but wickedly wealthy
wacko in Foxcatcher proves it perfectly.

Foxcatcher is the story of Olympic champion wrestlers,
brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schulz (Mark Ruffalo). Mark is the
younger brother who won a gold medal at the ‘84 Olympics while Dave is the
smarter of the pair, a loving family man who coaches his brother with care and
passion. The blue-collar brothers are an inseparable team until the magnificently wealthy John Du
Pont (Steve Carrell) sends an envoy out to collect Mark and fly him first class
out to Du Pont’s beautiful Pennsylvania country house. Foxcatcher Farm is a mansion
that would dazzle most but is particularly impressive to working class Mark,
and a tour reveals the place is filled with race horses, trophies and Du Pont’s
snooty mother (Vanessa Redgrave).

Du Pont is a sickeningly rich, sad little spoiled man-child.
Patriotic, lonely and demanding, he manages to charm Mark (mostly with offers
of money) and lures him out to live and train in a beautiful training facility
on the grounds. Du Pont’s mother does not approve of wrestling and though her
son is desperate for her to acknowledge his passion, commitment and talent, it
is clear Du Pont is simply throwing money around in order to fuel his own ego
and pride. He funds the American national wrestling team in the run up to the ‘88
Seoul Olympics in the hope of some of that gold rubbing off on him in the eyes
of his unimpressed mother, but also out of a strangely philanthropic sense of
national pride.

Mark moves to Foxcatcher but his brother Dave resists
because he is hesitant to shift his happy family around the country. While Mark
is the gold medal winner, Dave is smarter, more capable and an essential part
of Mark’s success. With Mark keen to step out from the shadow of his brother,
and DuPont realising the importance of luring Dave, the three men are about to
come into a tragic conflict.

Foxcatcher is a true life tragedy that gifts its central
performers with real characters that are an actor’s dream. The central trio of
Tatum, Ruffalo and Carrell are superb with the former funny man on particularly
fine form and almost completely resisting the urge to turn Du Pont into a
caricature. Carrell dials down anything that could make Du Pont too amusing, though
there are a couple of awkward moments that raise a laugh (check out his
brilliant nickname he asks to be called by Mark) and instead becomes a highly unsympathetic
but sadly understandable monster that is the dark heart of the story. Carrell
will get all the plaudits due to his impressive physical transformation that is
completely lacking in vanity but Tatum and Ruffalo also deserve their fair
share of praise. Ruffalo is typically good as the loving family man but both
him and Tatum have an incredible physical presence in the film also. Their body
language and movement is instantly distinctive but seems to come from a place
of years of practice wrestling in the gym.

Director Bennett Miller follows Moneyball and Capote with
another fascinating true story filled with attention grabbing performances.
Like Moneyball, the idea of money not being necessary for great sporting
achievement is revisited but instead of the charismatic Brad Pitt figure,
Carrell steals the film as a sad, pathetic, insecure little man who believes
money can stop anyone saying no to him.

For those who do not know the real story behind the film,
try to avoid spoilers as the ending will likely be a huge shock. For everyone
else, the real surprise here is Carrell whose performance as a man a million
miles from normal will likely be a strong contender come award season. Catch
it.